New Clause 1 - Protection of freedom of expression
Racial and Religious Hatred Bill
1:30 pm
Dominic Grieve (Shadow Attorney General, (Assist the Home Affairs Team); Beaconsfield, Conservative)
It is quite the reverse. My point is that under the Bill as it stands, any group that can claim the protection of having its philosophical views expressed as a religion will be able to demand—the Attorney-General may not agree to it—that any criticism of its views and beliefs should be prohibited on the grounds that it is an incitement of hatred of its religion.
I do not particularly want to read the text again, but I remind hon. Members that the document I circulated contained harsh criticisms of Islam and Islamic beliefs and practices. I have no idea whether the criticisms are accurate, but they are criticisms of some of the practices and beliefs of another faith and of the potential social consequences flowing from them. I have no idea whether that document would be considered an incitement to religious hatred. Although it makes some conciliatory noises too, someone reading it might well conclude that Islam was a horrible faith and its adherents were nasty people. But Muslims would be entitled under this Bill to claim protection from those views on the grounds that they are an incitement of hatred against them. Exactly the same thing would happen to the BNP if it succeeded in setting up a worship system in which it said that its views about the need for races to live apart were derived from some theological mumbo-jumbo to which it adhered.